Intentions to Marry, 1898 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840414, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 27 2025

1898 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 796

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1898

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
577	28 December 1898	William Charles Finnis Sarah Augusta Evans	William Charles Finnis Sarah Augusta Evans 💍 1898/3469	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	27 28	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 5 days	Holy Trinity Church	98/4578	28 December 1898	Rev. W.A. Pascoe, Anglican
578	28 December 1898	Andrew Hugh Pepper Agnes Edith Salisbury	Andrew Hugh Pepper Agnes Gibbs 💍 1898/3390	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 24 years	St. Andrew's Church	98/4470	28 December 1898	Rev. R. Erwin, Presbyterian
579	28 December 1898	William Alexander Nixon Mary Moffet Spinks	William Alexander Nixon Mary Moffat 💍 1898/3432	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 32	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 10 years	St. Michael's Church	98/4489	28 December 1898	Rev. S. Webster, Presbyterian
580	28 December 1898	Abraham Herouran Alice Ann Moore	Abraham Heasman Alice Ann Moore 💍 1898/3521	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Machinist	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 24 years	House of Philip Thomas, Hereford Street	98/5009	28 December 1898	Rev. J. Orchard, Wesleyan
581	28 December 1898	Alfred James Giles Amy Jane Peachey	Alfred James Giles Swane Amydyne Sarah Peachey 💍 1898/3417	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	23 21	Christchurch Fendalton	6 days 5 years	St. Albans Church	98/4578	28 December 1898	Rev. W. Lee, Wesleyan
582	28 December 1898	Edward Corigile Bands Mary Smith	Edwin Pain Mary Smith 💍 1899/1106 Frank McKean Mary Smith 💍 1898/3235	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	29 25	Christchurch Lincoln	4 days 28 years	House of Mr. A. Brown, Lincoln	98/5103	28 December 1898	Rev. A. Reid, Presbyterian
583	28 December 1898	Fred Mathew Brown Ellen Hamlin	Fred Mathew Brown Ellen Hamlin 💍 1899/927	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 24 years	Methodist Church, Harman Street	99/815	28 December 1898	Rev. Thomas, Wesleyan
584	28 December 1898	Sherard Harding Taylor Cora Ann Hawkins	Edmund Harding Taylor Cora Ann Hawkins 💍 1899/650	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 28	Halswell Linwood	22 years 2 years	Church Ferry Road, Sydenham	99/749	28 December 1898	Rev. S. Sarginson, Congregational

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).